The Impact of the Army

For our latest "Shop Talk", Coach Bill answers a premium member's question about the impact of the Army in our first year. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hey, everybody, it's Bill Courtney. Welcome to shop Talk number nineteen.
And I have to continue to repeat the numbers because
Alex going to keep up with them for me. But
it is number nineteen, and today, guys, we're going to
talk about the impact of the Army. And the reason
we're doing that is because we constantly ask you, guys

(00:24):
to send us in what you want to hear and
what you want to know. And in response to a
premium member's question, today's shop Talk number nineteen, it's the
impact of the Army. This is for you. Right after
these brief messages from our general sponsors. Hey, everybody, welcome

(01:04):
back shop Talk number nineteen. Army member and Premium member
Brad McKay hill. I think I said that right, Okay,
Brad McKay hill seems like a nice guy to forgive you.
He probably would. Brad, if I said it wrong, I'm sorry,
but I believe it's Brad McKay hill. He wrote us
this good afternoon. I have a suggestion, why don't you

(01:27):
dedicate a podcast as an update of the guests and
what impact the Army had on them since their episode's air.
For example, did the Mississippi Kasa kid get us tuition paid.
We'd love to hear what the Army is accomplishing. I'm
a dedicated fan. Keep up the great work, Bride. First
of all, thank you, and as proof that we are

(01:51):
absolutely committed to interacting with emails and information and questions
that the Army sends to us, Shop Talk number nineteen
is going to do exactly this and Alex did a
great job putting together after one year, a cool list
of examples of the impact of the Army. They're bullet pointed.

(02:13):
We're not going to go deep into many of them,
but honestly, as I read over the list, I was shocked.
It's more than I thought, and it's humbling. I'm honored,
and candidly, at the risk of being maybe even a
little raggadocious, I'm kind of proud. So the following is
a summary of the impact that the Army has had

(02:34):
that we're aware of, and we're likely not aware of
many more things, which is yet another call for you guys.
Please email us and tell us so if you've been
impacted by the Army personally, or you've been inspired to
take action, please let me know. As I say all
the time, I'd love to hear about it. My email
is built at normal folks dot us and we'll respond

(02:56):
here we go. A listener email that they were in
inspired to become a coach. Two listeners have been inspired
to become volunteers with KASA, where they advocate for foster
children in the legal system and in life, which is
from the aerin Aaron Smith episode which actually tags into

(03:18):
what Brad asked about the tuition being paid. A Haitian orphanage,
a place of Hope in Haiti, is adopting the model
of Sleep in Heavenly Peace, whose volunteers have built one
hundred and forty thousand beds for kids without them, and
these Haitian orphans are building beds for Haitian kids that

(03:40):
aren't orphans but don't have beds. If you hadn't heard
about this, we have an entire episode on it back
in December when the orphanage who does all this when
their generator went out and the generator there is not
just about lights, It's about clean drinking water for not
only the orphanage, but for the people that live around

(04:01):
the orphanage. It's the only place to get clean drinking
water in this entire area. When the generator went out,
there was no electricity, but most importantly, there was no
longer clean drinking water. We put on a call to
the army and twenty seven thousand dollars was quickly raised.
And even with all that's going on in Haiti, we

(04:22):
found a route to get it done, and the generator
in pump was sent to the orphanage. And now the
orphanage once again has lights and clean drinking water in
an area where it doesn't exist, all because of the
stories told on an army in normal folks and Oklahoma

(04:43):
listener named Jim Pina is replicating the model of Big
al Holden secret Families where their army of elves in Muncie,
Indiana give ten thousand gifts to two thousand kids whose
family can afford Christmas all on Christmas Eve, and so
Big Awl's story is going to Oklahoma. The Army has

(05:04):
donated thirteen thousand, four hundred dollars to try to eliminate
twenty thousand dollars of a college debt of the foster
youth named Thomas, who was sexually and physically abused as
a kid. The state of Missy told him he would
have a full ride at Old Miss, but that turned
out not to be true, and so this kid who'd

(05:26):
been abused his whole life grew up in foster care
and was told he would finally, as a result of
him keeping good grades, go to Ole Miss on a
full ride. When he showed up, he was dropped off
in a dorm and then told none of it was true.
So we put a call out to the army to

(05:47):
eliminate the twenty thousand dollars of debt he's incurred to
get his degree. So far, thirteen thousy four hundred has
been raised. I really would love to see the balance
of that made up. I hope you hearing us, would
be interested in donating toward this. Aaron Smith, the head
of KASA of North Mississippi, would be happy to properly

(06:10):
appropriate your funds. You can reach Aaron at E. Smith
at KASA of North Mississippi dot com. So, Brad, the
whole reason we're doing this episode is because of you,
and that was specifically the thing you asked about. So
the answer is no, that kid's tuition has not been

(06:32):
covered in full, but we're only about seven thousand dollars away.
Premium member Pastor Donald Frye has talked about several episodes
in his sermons, Alex, you're Catholic, and this guy in
and so we're we've got we I don't know about
this army of normal folks and evangelical sermons, but it's happening. Yeah.

(06:58):
I don't care either, but I mean that's perfect. He
even had one titled Don't be a Turkey Christian after
our Don't Be a Turkey Person's story when we were
when we had the billboard in Times Square in New
York and appeared on the Kelly Clarkson Show. So from

(07:22):
a billboard in Times Square to the Kelly Clarkson Show
to a Christian church, Don't be a Turkey Person has
resonated Army member Bob Thorpe after hearing our episode on
Robert Hill's Friends After five, which please listen to it.

(07:43):
I think it's phenomenal. It seeks to grow the black
middle class through more black and white Americans simply becoming friends.
After five. He invited Robert to his home so that
his community and Flag Staff Arizona could learn more about
his vision. Robert even preached at Bob's church on family,

(08:06):
community and national unity. One member approached him after and
said that several days earlier, she prayed for a message
on national unity to be addressed at her church, and
lo and behold, Robert showed up. She was thrilled. We
actually shared this story on our social media channels, and
I hope you'll follow us at Army of Normal Folks

(08:30):
to get more inspiring content like this. That's really kind
of a cool story. Robert is Robert is a good
dude who came up with really interesting story. And I
just wonder if ten years ago he'd ever thought he'd
been at Flagstaff, Arizona, talking about friends after five and

(08:51):
preaching in these folks church. It's amazing the connectivity that
can happen with an Army in Normal Folks. Premium member
doctor Rohnda Breelin Smith is using the podcast in her
social work classes at the University of Southern Mississippi. Her
students choose an episode to listen to and reflect on

(09:13):
what they've learned, and over four hundred students have done it.
This one is kind of crazy because he's like hyper
army normal Folks. Premium member Michael Lignos, Let's say that, right,
Alix Lignos. Michael, I'm sorry, I do the best I can.

(09:33):
Phonetically Premium member Michael Lignos Alignos has been running with
the homeless through the Atlanta chapter of Back on My Feet.
After hearing the Back on My Feet episode, he has
reached out to Sleep in Heavenly Peace to volunteer with
them to build beds for children without beds. He has

(09:54):
donated to meet several requests on care portal. He is
now supporting a few future super hero and friends and
more than likely some other stuff we've been missing. Michael,
if we had a million of you, the world would change.
Thanks for listening and thanks for engaging. An Army member

(10:15):
wrote me this Bill just want to say thanks for
the hope. I reached out to your guest officer Tommy Norman,
who if you will remember, is the Michael Jordan of
Community Policing working up in North Little Rock. To my amazement,
he called me. We had to talk about my daughter,

(10:35):
who is facing addiction. Another Army member wrote me, I
ran across you on Micro's podcast. Your story really inspires me. Thanks.
I'm personally digging myself out of a really deep ull
of misery. In November of twenty twenty, my three month
old grandside died unexpectedly. That sent a shockwave through our

(10:57):
family that destroyed so much. I mean then and now.
My daughter and I had a falling out and we
haven't spoken for over a year. My daughter recently ramped
up for our estrangement to borrow me from seeing my
remaining five year old grandchild. I cry every day. That
resulted in me nearly losing the will to live. I
am just now starting to set it straight again. After

(11:21):
listening to your podcast with Mike Row, I wondered what
it is that I love to do that I could
be of help to someone else. I'm not particularly talented
at anything, so it took me a while to think
of something. I'm a good grandma, I mean really good,
So I decided maybe there's a way I could use
some of that grandma energy, which I love, that grandma

(11:42):
energy helping kids. Since I can't use it on my own,
I emailed my local elementary school and I will start
volunteering there shortly. I also have a craft project that
I'd started for my grandson and was working on when
he died. I've decided to finish it and donate it
to a local battered women's shelter. I know Am Mama

(12:02):
there will appreciate it. I feel fortunate that I heard
the podcast at just the right time to port me
in a productive direction. One can only cry over the
losses for so long. My apologies for writing this novel,
but I thought you might be interested in the effect
you were having out there in the world. Keep up
the good work, and I'll be praying for you, your
family and your good works. I won't because there's so

(12:26):
much personal stuff in there. We won't put her name out,
but I just will say that brought tears to my
eyes and really fueled me to know that what we're
doing can have such a profound impact on people. Army
member Joel feed at EHD feed fed fed Joel. Sorry again,

(12:53):
I'm terrible with last names apparently, or maybe we just
have a collection of people with interesting last names. Not sure,
Army Joel wrote us, I recently recently reached a milestone
of twenty five gallons of blood donated since nineteen sixty eight.
Twenty five gallons of blood Holy Smokes. After reading your

(13:15):
article in god Boast, I realized my church had never
had a blood drive in the twenty five years i've
been attending. After receiving my twenty five gallon certificate, I
inquired about having a drive. After a few phone calls,
I was able to set it up for May eighth,
twenty twenty four at tunnel Hill Community Church in tunnel Hill, Georgia.
From your article, I remembered three ingredients of passion, expertise

(13:39):
and opportunity. I want to thank you for the story
and the inspiration has provided me. Who knows what we
may do next. I started a community garden at the
church in twenty twelve for my master gardener project and
still going. It was the same combo of three. You
have really given a good formula for projects. So there
it is. That's the collection alex Is put together. I

(14:02):
am certain there's more, and gosh, please tell us about it.
If you know of anybody out there doing extraordinary stuff,
or if you know of anybody, or if you're one
of the people out there who's been listening and has
been incentive to do something as a result of the army,

(14:22):
please let us know. It's the whole we're doing this thing.
Let us know, let us put it out there. It
will be encouragement for other people to get involved. If
you haven't already signed up to join the army at
normalfolks dot us or become a premium member which helps

(14:42):
us grow. I'm begging you please consider it. The more
people we have, the more impact we have, and the
greater our numbers. Candidly, the more AD revenue we get,
the more AD revenue we get. That's how we are
able to continue to produce the show. We're doing some

(15:04):
good out there, guys, and as we grow, we could
do more good. So please join the army at normalfolks
dot us, become a premium member, help us grow and
tell people about us so we can grow our numbers.
Last thing I want to say is this, since a
shop Talk, I run a company with one hundred and
thirty people in it, and we do business all over

(15:26):
the place, I think forty countries or so, I'm busy
and the podcast is grown into a significant amount of
work and a lot of time, and I guess I
would just want to say it is these stories, and

(15:51):
it is your emails, and it is the stories of
people impacted by one of our awesome guest stories that
get emailed to us and told us about it. That
is what really fuels my fire and inspires us. Alex
has four kids and a job, and we work hard

(16:11):
on this thing. And I'm telling you the whole reason
we do it is because of this kind of stuff.
Help us, help us grow, Give us your stories, email us,
give us ideas for new stories. Tell us of successes
that you know of as a result of the stories.

(16:34):
Let's keep this thing going and let's grow it. Let's
see if we can't change a lot of what's going
on in this country for better. An army of normal folks. Guys,
it always will start with us. I'm Bill Courtney. I'll
see you next week.